{"id":10354,"date":"2020-01-28T14:16:24","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T18:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=10354"},"modified":"2023-03-19T08:19:45","modified_gmt":"2023-03-19T12:19:45","slug":"automation-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2020\/01\/automation-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"Automation Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Radio Automation Systems are nothing new under the sun. As Marconi tapped out his <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Guglielmo_Marconi#Transatlantic_transmissions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">famous S<\/a>, he was likely thinking &#8220;We should get a machine to do this&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Broadcast stations have been installing different types of automation since the mid-1950s and early 1960s.\u00a0 It was touted as a way to free up announcers so they could do more important things.<\/p>\n<p>While cleaning out an old studio\/transmitter building and getting things ready for demolition, I found a stash of old product brochures for various automation systems from the 60s, 70s, and 80s.\u00a0 It looks like the previous owner used to go to the NAB every year.\u00a0 How many radio guys got their start on the overnight shift changing out reels?\u00a0 I know a few.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10358\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10358\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/gates-automate.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10358\" src=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/gates-automate.jpg\" alt=\"Gates automation system brochure, circa 1965\" width=\"1200\" height=\"927\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/gates-automate.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/gates-automate-650x502.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/gates-automate-1165x900.jpg 1165w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/gates-automate-150x116.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/gates-automate-768x593.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/gates-automate-660x510.jpg 660w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10358\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gates automation system brochure, circa 1965<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Gates Radio Corporation had a fairly standard reel-to-reel system in three different configurations.\u00a0 These systems were pretty pricey in their day.\u00a0 According to the 1966 price list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Automate 244 cost $7,275.00 ($58,837.00 in 2020)<\/li>\n<li>The Automate 484 cost $12,210.00 ($102,946.00 in 2020)<\/li>\n<li>The Automate 1007 cost $17,150.00 ($138,799.00 in 2020)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Those are for stereo systems, mono systems cost about $500.00 less.\u00a0 Each one of those systems ran one station.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10359\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10359\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/auto244.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10359\" src=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/auto244.jpg\" alt=\"Gates Automate 244 events thumb wheel\" width=\"1200\" height=\"967\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/auto244.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/auto244-650x524.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/auto244-1117x900.jpg 1117w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/auto244-150x121.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/auto244-768x619.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/auto244-633x510.jpg 633w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10359\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gates Automate 244 events thumb wheel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The larger the system, the more events it could trigger.\u00a0 I have never run into one of these in the wild.<\/p>\n<p>Long-form satellite shows began to surface in the early 1980s. Things like all news formats and overnight talk shows.\u00a0 I have had nightmares where everyone walks around saying &#8220;This is Larry King, you&#8217;re on&#8230;&#8221; while UFOs fly overhead and next-door neighbor, Jim Hightower, buries PCBs in his backyard not more than 200 feet from his house.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10366\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10366\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BE-Control16.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10366\" src=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BE-Control16.jpg\" alt=\"Broadcast Electronics Control 16 radio automation system\" width=\"900\" height=\"1176\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BE-Control16.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BE-Control16-459x600.jpg 459w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BE-Control16-689x900.jpg 689w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BE-Control16-115x150.jpg 115w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BE-Control16-768x1004.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BE-Control16-390x510.jpg 390w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10366\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Broadcast Electronics Control 16 radio automation system<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Broadcast Electronics had the Control 16 system in the 1980s that ran off of a very basic computer system that could handle 3,000 events with the standard RAM configuration and up to 9,999 events with additional RAM.\u00a0 This was ideal for multiple program sources; music on reel machines, satellite syndicated talk or music formats, etc.\u00a0 No longer were these machines simply running the overnights.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10370\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10370\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schaffer901.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10370\" src=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schaffer901.jpg\" alt=\"Schaffer 901 radio automation system\" width=\"1200\" height=\"926\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schaffer901.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schaffer901-650x502.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schaffer901-1166x900.jpg 1166w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schaffer901-150x116.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schaffer901-768x593.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schaffer901-661x510.jpg 661w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10370\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Schafer 90x radio automation system<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Schafer is perhaps the most known analog tape automation, at least to me.\u00a0 I know of several of these systems that were in operation through the mid 1990s.\u00a0 By this time, long-form satellite music formats had become the rage.\u00a0 However, there were still a few stations using reel-to-reel music services.<\/p>\n<p>I particularly like this flyer from IGM:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10363\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10363\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/IGM.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10363\" src=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/IGM.jpg\" alt=\"IGM (International Good Music) brochure, circa 1971\" width=\"900\" height=\"1193\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/IGM.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/IGM-453x600.jpg 453w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/IGM-679x900.jpg 679w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/IGM-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/IGM-768x1018.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/IGM-385x510.jpg 385w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10363\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">IGM (International Good Music) brochure, circa 1971<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>By the mid-1990s, these tired old dinosaurs were being removed.\u00a0 Still, the mechanics of the operation were a thing to behold.\u00a0 It was nice because you could hear the relays snap shut after decoding a 25\/35 Hz tone or one of the Mutual Radio be-doops.\u00a0 The cart-o-matic would chug through the break until the liner fired and then back to the bird.\u00a0 If there were any issues, one simply needed to stand there and watch which part of the machine malfunctioned.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10371\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10371\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schafferlog.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10371\" src=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schafferlog.jpg\" alt=\"Schaffer logging system\" width=\"900\" height=\"1158\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schafferlog.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schafferlog-466x600.jpg 466w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schafferlog-699x900.jpg 699w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schafferlog-117x150.jpg 117w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schafferlog-768x988.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/schafferlog-396x510.jpg 396w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10371\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Schafer logging system<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Computer-based systems like Computer Concepts DCS, Arrakis Digilink, and Audio Vault came along, which got rid of the analog tape.\u00a0 Instead, they stored audio on hard drives.\u00a0 In those early systems hard drive space was a premium, so usually, at least 3:1 compression was needed to fit all the commercials onto the drive space available.<\/p>\n<p>My first brush with Audio Vault was in 1994 at WGY in Schenectady, NY.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a pretty good system if you could understand the .ini files.\u00a0 As the BE tech support guys used to say &#8220;You can program it to turn the coffee pot on if you wanted to.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nowadays, what used to be a studio location is more akin to a content distribution node.\u00a0 This rack combines music and commercials stored locally on hard drives with out-of-town voice tracks and serves as the program source for eleven radio stations.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10365\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10365\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/radio-automation.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10365\" src=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/radio-automation.jpg\" alt=\"Radio Automation, 2020 style\" width=\"900\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/radio-automation.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/radio-automation-450x600.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/radio-automation-675x900.jpg 675w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/radio-automation-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/radio-automation-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/radio-automation-383x510.jpg 383w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10365\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Radio Automation, 2020 style<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It works remarkably well, as long as the windows operating system stays functional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Radio Automation Systems are nothing new under the sun. As Marconi tapped out his famous S, he was likely thinking &#8220;We should get a machine to do this&#8230;&#8221; Broadcast stations have been installing different types of automation since the mid-1950s and early 1960s.\u00a0 It was touted as a way to free up announcers so they &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2020\/01\/automation-systems\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Automation Systems<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,35],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-10354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audio","category-history","tag-automation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10354"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11048,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10354\/revisions\/11048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}